October brought us some fun fights, some fun times, some sad times and some interesting news.

Setting us off for the month, we had UFC 216 on the 7th. The main event finally brought Tony Ferguson fighting for a belt, taking on Kevin Lee for the Interim Lightweight championship. Lee gave Ferguson trouble on the feet in the early going, but ran out of steam in the third and fell victim to a Ferguson triangle choke. Lee nearly missed weight, coming in at 156 and being given another hour to lose the last pound, and then came into the fight itself with a clearly visible staph infection on his chest, neither of which can have helped his campaign.

The co-main event saw Demetrious Johnson put a hellacious beating on Ray Borg, and with only two minutes to go in the last round, chain a german suplex into an straight arm-bar while Borg was still in the air for the submission finish. Seriously, look at this poo poo.

In other fights, a very very very last minute change saw goon favourite Derrick "The Black Beast" Lewis pull out of the fight the day of the event. Lewis' old back injury flared up and he was barely able to walk. Walt Harris was promoted to the main card and was submitted in trivial fashion by actual-heavyweight-fighter Fabricio Werdum. And in what I think was a first for the main card of a PPV event while I've been writing these up, someone with no Wikipedia page beat someone else with no Wikipedia page. Mara Romero Borella def. Kalindra Faria by rear naked choke and I promise you those are real people.

The 21st of the month saw us head to Gdansk, Poland, for UFC Fight Night 118. The main event was set to be a firecracker on paper and did not disappoint. Darren Till came into the fight unbeaten in both kickboxing and MMA, and came out the same way with a late-first round TKO of Donald Cerrone. Big things loom in the future for the young Liverpudlian.

Other fun fights on the card featured Jan Blachowicz picking up the win against Devin Clark with a rare standing rear-naked choke, and the opener saw Josh Emmett earning a rare 10-7 round against a fairly hapless Felipe Arantes.

Finally, October brought the end of the Machida Era. UFC Fight Night 119 was live efrom Sao Paulo, Brazil, on the 28th, and in the main event, Derek Brunson threw as nice a left hook as you'll ever see to knock Lyoto Machida out cold. Brazilian fighters had a pretty good night otherwise, with the glaring exception of Colby Covington gettting a unanimous decision victory over former Middleweight and Welterweight contender Demian Maia. This fight saw Maia fight his fifth All-America wrestler, in which time he managed to complete one single takedown. While this only makes two fights in a row that Maia has lost, Maia is only a few days away from 40 and there has definitely been some discussion of his hanging up the gloves.

News

October brought us some neat booking news, with Edson Barboza chalked in to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 219 at the end of December. Time will tell if The Eagle manages to make the weight. Later in the month, Dana announced that UFC 221 will come from Perth, Australia, on the 11th of February, and feature Robert Whittaker looking to unify the Middleweight belts with the winner of this weekend's title match between Michael Bisping and Georges St. Pierre. Again, whether the winner of that fight is healthy enough in three months time to fight again remains to be seen, but considering this will be the first ever UFC event from Perth they will be looking to stack the card with Australians to guarantee a sellout crowd.

Speaking of Australians, October brought further Mark Hunt news. After publishing an article on the Player's Voice website, where he spoke about having memory loss and slurred speech, the UFC replaced him with Fabricio Werdum for the upcoming Sydney card. Mark was furious about this, having just completed the medical tests required and being in the middle of an expensive camp. Collectively, the MMA world sort of went "well yeah maybe you shouldn't be fighting anymore Mark", but he is talking filing (another) lawsuit against the UFC in response.

In the fallout from UFC 216, it wa revealed that Kevin Lee noted on his NSAC form that he had no major medical issues at the time of the fight. Considering that he had a clear staph infection on his chest, this was incorrect, and the NSAC is investigating the matter. It's a serious issue and one that should have repercussions for all involved, but it remains to be seen whether anything serious will come from it.

The 23rd saw the long-overdue retirement of Takanori Gomi from the UFC octagon... only to sign with Rizin for their New Year's Eve show about seven minutes later. I guess he still needs money for beer and smokes.

On to the champions.

Heavyweight Champion Stipe Miocic (19-2).
Stipe Miocic won the Heavyweight title in May of 2016, stopping Fabricio Verdum in front of his countrymen in a single round. He backed this feat up with another first-round stoppage of the most decorated Heavyweight of all time, Alistair Overeem, in Miocic's home town of Cleveland in September. It was considered that the winner of the fight between Werdum and Cain Velasquez at UFC 207, a rematch of the fight where Werdum took Velasquez' belt from him in 2015, would be Miocic's next opponent, but Velasquez was forced out of this bout with yet another leg injury. Miocic defended his title in May 2017, with yet another first round KO of his opponent, making Junior dos Santos his second scalp as champion and equalling the all-time title defenses record. No current opponent is announced, with Miocic hung up in contract negotiations with the UFC, but a superfight with Jon Jones was being discussed before the latter tested positive for retardistry.

Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel “DC” Cormier (19-1(1)).
Daniel Cormier won the belt initially in May of 2015 against the heavy-hitting Anthony Johnson by rear-naked choke in the third round. Cormier defended his belt against Alexander Gustaffson in October of 2015 in a split decision. A planned rematch against Jon Jones was scheduled for UFC 200, which was called off after Jones tested positive for banned substances. Cormier went on to fight Anderson Silva in a non-title bout on three days' notice. Cormier was slated to fight Anthony Johnson in a rematch for the belt in December, a match which did not took place due to Cormier suffering a groin adductor injury. The bout took place at UFC 210 in April, with Cormier defending the belt in under two rounds and Johnson riding off into the sunset with a surprise retirement. The rematch against Jon Jones finally took place at UFC 215 and Jones managed to keep his poo poo together for a grand total of 24 days. Then he tested positive for steroids and had the fight result overturned and the title stripped, and it is now back around the waist of Cool MMA Dad Daniel Cormier. No future challenger is announced.

Middleweight Champion - Michael Bisping (37-7)
Bisping had a fairytale year in 2016, first of all beating the greatest MMA striker of all time Anderson Silva in front of his hometown crowd of Manchester in February. Then, on 17 days notice, he stepped up to fight Luke Rockhold for the Middleweight Championship in June at UFC 199. Bisping joked about not having the regular time to get his cardio ready, meaning he would have to knock Rockhold out in the first round. Against the expectations of everyone everwhere, including his own son, he did exactly that. He capped off his year with a successful defense against Dan Henderson, putting the ghosts of UFC 100 to rest. A defense against Yoel Romero was initially slated, which was then changed to a match against a returning George St. Pierre, with both bouts put on hold due to Bisping suffering a knee injury in May. The GSP fight is currently booked for UFC 217 in New York in November.

Interim Middleweight Champion - Robert Whittaker (19-4)
Whittaker rode a seven-fight winning streak, including shutting down the deadly takedowns of Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza to slot himself into an Interim Middleweight championship match against Yoel "Soldier of God" Romero. The canny Australian showed incredible heart in taking it to the Cuban Olympic silver medalist over five rounds, and even with a severe knee injury coming in the first he managed to outpoint his opponent to take the unanimous decision. Logic dictates that Whittaker face Michael Bisping for the undisputed championship next, but that Pisbing takes on George St. Pierre next this weekend. Whittaker is slated to take on the winner of that fight to unify the belts in Perth in February.

Welterweight Champion Tyron “The Chosen One” Woodley (17-3-1).
Woodley was promised a title shot against the Welterweight champion 17 months before the fight took place. After Robbie Lawler put in Fight Of The Year performances against Rory MacDonald in July 2015 and Carlos Condit in January 2016, Woodley went into their fight in July of 2016 as a significant underdog. This meant nothing, with Lawler going down to strikes in the first round. Woodley defended his belt against Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson, putting on an incredible fight that ended in a majority draw at UFC 205 in New York in November 2016. A rematch for this fight was held in March month at UFC 209, with Woodley again the winner in a stilted affair. He defended the title again at UFC 214 in late July 2017 against Demian Maia, following a conservative but sharp gameplan that saw him stop all 22 of the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ace's takedown attempts. No future contender is announced at this stage.

Lightweight Champion Conor McGregor (21-3). Easily beat Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205 in November, becoming the first ever UFC fighter to hold the belts in two divisions at the same time. Several fights are being talked up for Conor at the moment, including Nate Diaz for the LW belt, Khabib Nurmagomedov for the LW belt and even Tyron Woodley for the WW belt. Conor has also talked about taking some time off. The featherweight title was either stripped from Conor, or he relinquished it, following the injury to Daniel Cormier leaving UFC 206 without a title fight for the main event. Conor then took a ton of time off to go fight the biggest-money boxing match of all time, and is now looking for a piece of the promotion action before coming back to MMA.

Interim Lightweight Champion Tony Ferguson (26-3)
Tony rode an impressive 9-win/8 bonus award UFC streak to be booked against Khabib Murmagomedov at UFC 209. Unfortunately, Khalabeeb decided he would rather get into a losing fight against a plate of tiramisu and failed to make it to the match. A match against Kevin Lee was announced for UFC 216, with Lee nearly losing to tiramisu before the weigh-in. Ferguson used superior cardio and grappling and the fact he wasn't trying to overcome a staph infection to win by triangle choke late in the 3rd round. Logic dictates his next fight will be against Conor McGregor, but logic has nothing to do with what happens next with that Irishman.

Men's Featherweight Champion - Max Holloway (18-3).
Holloway put together a 9-fight win streak, with several Performance of the Night bonuses, before answering the call to contend for the Interim Featherweight Championship at UFC 206 in December 2016. Taking out Anthony Pettis with a body kick and punches late in the third round, he has set himself up for a unification bout against Jose Aldo at UFC 212. At that event in early June 2017, he defeated Aldo in the third round with focused ground and pound, and unified the belts. Frankie Edgar has been announced as Holloway's first defense, with the match booked for UFC 218 in early December.

Men's Bantamweight Champion - Cody Garbrandtp (11-0).
After amassing a professional record of 5-0 in the minor leagues, Garbrandt was able to parley this into a UFC contract in January 2015. He then went on to win 5 fights in a row in the UFC, including going from unranked at Bantamweight at the start of 2016 into championship contention at the end. He took on Dominick Cruz for the title at UFC 207 in late December, and in contrast to analysis from a variety of sources, took out Cruz in a unanimous decision. Garbrandt was scheduled to take on TJ Dillashaw at UFC 213 in July, to cap off the current season of The Ultimate Fighter, which has now been cancelled due to a back injury sustained by the champion. That fight is currently slated for UFC 217 in November.

Men's Flyweight Champion Demetrious "Mighty Mouse" Johnson (27-2-1). Won the title in the final of the Flyweight Tournament in September 2012. Has defended it 11 times in a row and is now the most dominant champion in UFC history. Just look at that loving gif up there. Look at it. gently caress.

Women's Featherweight Champion - Cristiana Justino (18–1 (1))
With the vacating of this championship by Germaine de Randamie in May 2017, a match was set up for UFC 214 between Justino and Megan Anderson. Anderson pulled out of the fight in late June, and was replaced by current Invicta FC Bantamweight Champion Tonya Evinger. The significantly larger figher on the day, Justino dominated a one-sided affair and won the fight in the third round with brutal knee strikes.

Women's Bantamweight Champion - Amanda Nunes (14-4)
Nunes headlined UFC 200 in July of 2016, putting a vicious beating on Miesha Tate and securing a rear-nake choke victory in a little over three minutes. She backed this up with a brutal 48-second TKO victory against former Women's Bantamweight Champion and WMMA pioneer Rounda Rousey in late December 2016. Nunes was slated to take on Valentina Shevchenko in a rematch of their March 2016 fight, with that match being moved to UFC 215 last month. Nunes retained by a razor-thin split decision, and no future contender is announced at this stage.

Women's Strawweight Champion Joanna Jędrzejczyk (14-0). After winning the Women's Strawweight Championship against the one-dimensional Carla Esparza in March 2015, Jędrzejczyk has defended her title five times. Most recent of these was against Jessica Andrade at UFC 211 in May 2016. She is scheduled to defend the belt at UFC 217 this weekend against Rose Namajunas.

Other poo poo

Thanks very much to LobsterMobster for putting together the awards thread for last year:

Shout out to DumbWhiteGuy for providing details for the MMA IRC channel.

irc.synirc.net #mma

Join your fellow MMA fans in discussing all things MMA in a place probably secure against nuclear armageddon - IRC has been around for so long I'm not convinced anything could kill it.

More thanks go out to Unfunny Poster for putting together a new UFC Fight Pass Thread - Earning Your 3rd Degree Blackbelt In MMA Posting. This thread is being updated approximately every week with information on new and upcoming additions to the streaming service, and is good for general banter about old fights. October's UFC Fight Pass Match of the Month is my the Fight of the Night match between Tony Ferguson and Edson Barboza. A sweet back-and-forth match that comes in slightly under eight minutes of action-packed fight time.

As usual, let me know where I hosed something up, and you too could win the No-Prize!

hes always been great in my opinion. but the most talented carpenter in the world still has to build a ton of wardrobes before they can do it efficiently. he had great fights in cage rage with fryklund and making armed robber with anger issues lee murray look like a mouse in front of him

I think GSP was a better fighter in his prime than Bisping ever has been but I think Georges is fallen pretty far off and will be considerably undersized in this fight, so I am not picking him to win.

The undersized part is key. Bisping fought at LHW and wasn't terribly undersized. He's a lot loving bigger than anyone GSP has ever fought. There aren't a lot of welterweights that can just jump up to middle class and dominate.

The undersized part is key. Bisping fought at LHW and wasn't terribly undersized. He's a lot loving bigger than anyone GSP has ever fought. There aren't a lot of welterweights that can just jump up to middle class and dominate.

Which is really gonna suck if he get's stalled out on a take down attempt and has to fight his way from underneath.

Carlos Condit is the tallest (6'2") guy he's fought followed up by Nick Diaz and a couple others. None of them are as large as Bisping (6'3") and the only people even close to his height are really lanky guys.

This is the first time GSP is going to have a really big size disadvantage in front of him.

Bisping vs GSP is more of a "what kind of shape are then in today" fight than anything.

IMO the GSP who beat Thiago Alves and Jon Fitch beats the best Bisping that ever existed.

The GSP who squeaked by Hendricks probably wouldn't beat the Bisping who lost to Sonnen.

Ring rust is a thing, but GSP has typically come back bigger and better after a loss/regroup. Cruz showed that a long break can be beneficial to a fighter who stays in shape and engaged with his craft.

So what are we going to see? Tune in and find out. That's the main appeal of the fight.

Bisping vs GSP is more of a "what kind of shape are then in today" fight than anything.

IMO the GSP who beat Thiago Alves and Jon Fitch beats the best Bisping that ever existed.

The GSP who squeaked by Hendricks probably wouldn't beat the Bisping who lost to Sonnen.

Ring rust is a thing, but GSP has typically come back bigger and better after a loss/regroup. Cruz showed that a long break can be beneficial to a fighter who stays in shape and engaged with his craft.

So what are we going to see? Tune in and find out. That's the main appeal of the fight.

That's the entirety of the suspense. He's been gone a really, really, really long time and I don't think it was ever a good idea past 1 year off. GSP's worst case scenario is that he looks more like he did when he lost to Matt Serra

That's the entirety of the suspense. He's been gone a really, really, really long time and I don't think it was ever a good idea past 1 year off. GSP's worst case scenario is that he looks more like he did when he lost to Matt Serra

no the worst case scenario is Bisping just completely owns him for 5 rounds and cruises to a lopsided decision while beating him on the feet, taking him down and beating him up, and then maybe yelling out a french slur or ten

no the worst case scenario is Bisping just completely owns him for 5 rounds and cruises to a lopsided decision while beating him on the feet, taking him down and beating him up, and then maybe yelling out a french slur or ten

No way. That scenario is above median, at least from an entertainment perspective.

no the worst case scenario is Bisping just completely owns him for 5 rounds and cruises to a lopsided decision while beating him on the feet, taking him down and beating him up, and then maybe yelling out a french slur or ten

This is literally what I think the fight will look like, and I've got 20 quid on it.